Interfax: Russian GDP growth slows to 0.8% in Q2 – Rosstat

MOSCOW. Aug 11 (Interfax) – Russian year-on-year GDP growth slowed to 0.8% in Q2 2014, from 0.9% in Q1, the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) said in a preliminary estimate.

The Economic Development Ministry estimated the economy would grow 1.1% in Q2.

Rosstat will unveil more details in the middle of September.

The Econ Ministry thought GDP would grow 0.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis in Q2, after falling 0.5% in Q1. On that basis the ministry concluded that Russia had avoided a technical recession, where the economy slides for two quarters in succession.

The ministry has not given its new seasonally adjusted estimated for Q2 based on Rosstat’s estimate of 0.8% year-on-year growth.

GDP grew 0.8% year-on-year in Q1 2013, 1% in Q2, 1.3% in Q3 and 2% in Q4. The economy grew 1.3% in 2013 as a whole.

Rosstat has not yet given its H1 2014 GDP estimate but, going by the Q1 and Q2 figures, this might be 0.8%-0.9%. The Econ Ministry estimates GDP grew 1% in the half.